Someone recently asked me why every time they tried splicing two
pieces of audio together they kept getting clicks in their audio.
They also wanted to know how to eliminate the problem. Well, the
reason this happens is because most of the time the two different
audio waveforms don't line up with one another at the splice point.
Waveforms should be spliced at a point where they both line up with
the zero-axis (a point at which no sound is occurring).
If you have one of my books, you can find a more detailed
explanation on the following pages: Cakewalk Power (pages 154-155),
Sound Forge Power (pages 135-136), Sonar Power (pages 142-143),
Sonar 2 Power (pages 155-156), Sound Forge 6 Power (pages 128-129),
Sonar 3 Power (pages 128-129).
One way to make sure your audio waveforms line up at any spice point
is to use crossfading. This procedure smoothly fades one audio
waveform into another, thus eliminating any potential clicks or
pops. You should be able to find a crossfading function in most good
audio editing applications, but here are the steps to take when
using Sound Forge:
1) Open audio file A and audio file B.
2) Select all the data in audio file B.
3) In audio file A, place the Current Position Cursor at the splice
point (the point at which you want to insert audio file B).
4) Choose Edit > Paste Special > Crossfade to open the Crossfade
dialog box.
5) Choose the Normal Crossfade preset to have audio file A fade out
slowly and audio file B fade in slowly. Or choose the Fast In preset
for a quicker fade. You'll usually want to use a quicker fade if you
don't want the listener to hear the transition between the two
files.
6) Click OK.
[Note: If you are piecing two different songs together, you can do
the crossfade at a point in audio file A (usually the end) where
there is silence.]
Following this procedure, your two audio files should now be one
file with a smooth transition between them. No clicks, no pops, or
other annoying noises.
Scott R. Garrigus is the author of Cakewalk Power!, Sound Forge Power!,
Sound Forge 6 Power!, SONAR Power!, and SONAR 2 Power!, as well as the
publisher of DigiFreq. Learn about more cool music technology tips and
techniques and have the chance to win free music products by getting a
FREE subscription to DigiFreq... go to:
http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/